Archived What useful things could western civilization learn from the Arab world? (askgoat)
submitted ago by profanion
Posted by: profanion
Posting time: 4.6 years ago on
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Archived on: 2/12/2017 1:51:00 AM
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Archived What useful things could western civilization learn from the Arab world? (askgoat)
submitted ago by profanion
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[–] rwbj 1 point 10 points 11 points (+11|-1) ago
The slippery slope of puritanism.
The Arabic world didn't start out like this. Much like you have some 'cultural critics' complaining about things like boobs in video games all such movements start out as little more than 'just a little modesty.' But when you submit to 'just a little modesty' and that new modesty becomes the norm you again have movement for 'just a little modesty' that puts you just a little further along. Iterate along that for hundreds of years and eventually you have this. There was a Saudi cleric who thought being able to see eyes was too provocative and wanted 'just a little modesty.'
[–] [deleted] 0 points 4 points 4 points (+4|-0) ago
[–] KanakaHaole ago
how would you have both?
[–] ape147 3 points 4 points 7 points (+7|-3) ago
Don't submit to Islam.
[–] kyprioth 0 points 2 points 2 points (+2|-0) ago
I mean, long ago, math and language come from there, don't they? Do those count? I don't know.
[–] Vise_Grip_Pussy_Lips 0 points 2 points 2 points (+2|-0) ago
This sums it up pretty well, I think.
[–] Grospoliner ago
Yeah. You hear people go on about Algebra being an Islamic invention, but then you realize fucking Pythagoras existed a millennium before Islam and Babylon for one before that.
[–] OneTrueCube ago
It's more of their number system than algebra itself. Decimal places and the use of zero was super important.
[–] 5136161? ago
To give a real answer aside from "hurr dur Islam is bad"
Irrigation, A lot of irrigation technology used in Australia is invented in the middle east due to the need to keep plants alive in a hot environment and save water.
A ton of low-water irrigation techniques could be ported to the states to save massively on water consumption.
[–] NeedleStack ago
Algebra is from the Arabic word Al-jabr and its early origins were worked by Middle Eastern mathematicians so there's one example.
[–] Grospoliner 0 points 1 point 1 point (+1|-0) ago
Not quite. The Ancient Babylonians are the first recorded people to establish the foundations of algebraic maths between 1800 - 1600 BC. There's also the fact that Pythagoras (x2 + y2 = r2) lived around 500 BC, so that's two thousand years of algebraic math prior to the invention of Islam in 600 AD. It is called Algebra because it was translated from an Arabian scholar in the 9th century who translated prior works of his betters, you know, because the Muslims had conquered Alexandria, Spain, Carthage, and the Middle East
[–] HeavyBrain ago
That thinking and having your own oppinon/asking questions is good.